Thu 30 April 2020:
Twitter will grant researchers and software developers access to a real-time data stream of tens of millions of daily public tweets about COVID-19, which they can use to study the spread of the disease or track misinformation, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
Twitter said that this access could also be used by approved applicants working on crisis management, emergency response or communication within communities, as well as those developing machine learning and data tools to help the scientific community understand COVID-19.
Social media platforms have both introduced new policies to curb COVID-19 misinformation and warned that there may be errors due to their reliance on more automated moderation systems during the pandemic.
Researchers studying the platforms have argued that the companies must collect data about this period.
European Commissioner Vera Jourova called Twitter’s move “a good step in the right direction.”
“Our cooperation and regular contacts with online platforms to fight disinformation are bearing fruit. I have constantly underlined the importance for researchers to have better access to useful non-personal data and tools,” she said.
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